Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Language

English

Publication Date

11-1-2025

Journal

Rheumatic Disease Clinics of North America

DOI

10.1016/j.rdc.2025.07.015

PMID

41161912

PMCID

PMC13098319

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

4-22-2026

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Abstract

Polymyositis (PM) has been in the diagnostic armamentarium in medicine since the mid-nineteenth century. Medicine training puts a heavy emphasis on this diagnosis, and anyone with proximal muscle weakness with elevated serum creatinine kinase is assumed to be PM and a number of patients were rendered this diagnosis without additional testing. This article addresses the historical aspects of the diagnosis of PM and its evolution. We review this literature that addresses the rarity of this diagnosis and rightly puts in perspective in terms of its occurrence in relation to other inflammatory myositides.

Keywords

Humans, Polymyositis, History, 19th Century, History, 20th Century, polymyositis, myositis, mythology, inclusion body myositis, myopathology

Published Open-Access

yes

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